economists hope they'll come up with a plan to avoid automatic tax increases and government spending cuts. some fear the meet as good just for show, however a big development with the senate minority leader. he spoke directly with the president for the first time in negotiations. >> i told the president we would be happy to look at whatever he proposes but the truth is we're coming up against a hard dead line here and as i said, this is a conversation we should have had months ago. >> the main sticking point is who should pay more in taxes. democrats want a hike on households making more than $400,000 a year and republican aids say their leaders might get on board with that offer. >>> meanwhile if they aren't able to avoid the fiscal cliff people here in alabama will be especially hard hit. that's because prop 30 will soon mean higher sales taxes and higher income taxes on the state's top earners, the fiscal cliff would add to that hitting all american with higher taxes. >> i don't know if there's a word to describe how upset the public is going to be. nobody's going to be happy to s